Hammer Horror Meets Heavy Metal (Abigail - King Diamond)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Abigail - King Diamond
Date:	04/07/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic vocals, excellent songwriting and execution, loads of atmosphere, great lyrics

Disadvantages: Vocals might be offputting to some

Released way back in 1987, King Diamond's 'Abigail' is a concept album based around numerology and possession by spirits, no less, played in the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) style. It comes across like a creepier, darker version of Iron Maiden, complete with rousing dynamic heavy metal riffs and some excellent melodic solos. Each song continues the album's narrative, which is a Hammer Horror style ghost-tale set in the 18th century complete with multiple characters each with their own lines. Both story and dialogue are voiced by vocalist King Diamond via a mix of rasped/growled narration and insanely high pitched, Bruce-Dickinson-with-hits-nuts-in-a-vice falsetto vocals, which soar above the music on each track. These are more extreme even that Rob Halford's efforts with Judas Priest, and likely won't appeal to everybody, but their execution is unquestionably excellent throughout and nobody can suggest that King Diamond isnt a hugely talented singer.

The album has a dark and unsettling atmosphere to it and the band would go on to have a huge influence on a large number of more extreme metal bands, both musically (eg Dissection) and vocally (eg Anaal Nathrakh). There's plenty of musical variation throughout the albums duration, with each song sounding entirely memorable after just one listen, and here and there the band incorporate folky semi-acoustic sections, eerie backing synths and passages of spanish guitar, as well as mixing middle-eastern-sounding guitar scales and metal on one track to create a style wholly reminiscient of modern day Israeli black/thrash metal group Melechesh.

There's really nothing I can think of to criticise on this album, as everything comes together perfectly to create a true heavy metal classic. Casual listeners might complain that the vocals sound rather silly, and in truth they do, but they are so brilliantly performed and so incredibly difficult not to sing along to that the band gets away with it where few others would.

The eerie artwork is great too, and the remastered version comes with four bonus songs in the form of one new track and demo versions of three of the album's songs, all of which are well worth a listen.

A classic heavy metal album and a must for fans of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate and Dissection.

Tracklisting-

1. Funeral 01:30
2. Arrival 05:27
3. A Mansion In Darkness 04:34
4. The Family Ghost 04:06
5. The 7th Day Of July 1777 04:50
6. Omens 03:57
7. The Possession 03:26
8. Abigail 04:51
9. Black Horsemen 07:39
10. Shrine 04:23
11. A Mansion in Darkness (rough mix) 04:35
12. The Family Ghost (rough mix) 04:09
13. The Possession (rough mix) 03:28
Total playing time 56:55

Summary: A hugely influential heavy metal album and a timeless classic